Human capital and biological well-being : a first exploration of intragenerational and intergenerational effects in 20th-century Spain

El text s'ha presentat com a comunicació a l'European Population Conference 2010. Viena (Àustria), 1-4 de setembre de 2010.During the last five decades, Spain experienced a rapid transition towards high levels of development and well-being standards among Western societies. The specific contribution of human capital to the attainment of high development levels and its interaction with wellbeing and its biological components remains understudied. It is ignored to what extend economic growth and modernization would have rendered in terms of health without the improvement of educational status, particularly among mothers. It is also unknown to what extent differences in health status among Spanish regions and social classes are due to the human capital factor. In this paper it is aimed to explore the relationship between human capital formation and the biological wellbeing throughout the 20th century in Spain. The former will be approached by educational levels whereas cohort adult height will serve as a proxy of biological well-being. We will study both intra and intergenerational effects of human capital accumulation on the biological well-being of the Spanish population born between 1910 and 1976. A number of sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics will be used as control variables. The bulk of this work is based on microdata from the waves of the Spanish National Health Survey (ENSE) held between 1987 and 2006. Demographic analysis together with regression techniques form the core of the methodology.Durant les darreres cinc dècades, Espanya ha experimentat una ràpida transició cap a nivells de desenvolupament i benestar més alts. La contribució específica del capital humà a aquest procés i la seva interacció amb el benestar biològic és un aspecte encara poc investigat dins d'aquesta transició. En aquest sentit, desconeixem fins a quin punt el creixement econòmic espanyol hauria repercutit, en termes de salut, si no s'hagués donat, en paral·lel, una millora en els nivells de formació, particularment entre les mares. Es desconeix també el paper específic que ha jugat la formació del capital humà, en la configuració de les diferències de salut entre les regions espanyoles i entre les classes socials. En aquest treball s'explora, per a Espanya, la relació entre el capital humà i el benestar biològic de la població al llarg del segle XX,. El capital humà es troba a partir del nivell d'instrucció, mentre que pel benestar biològic s'utilitza l'alçada adulta de les generacions. Es plantegen dos nivells d'anàlisi: intrageneracional i intergeneracional, per a les cohorts nascudes entre 1910 i 1976, a partir de microdades de l'Enquesta Nacional de Salut (ENSE; edicions 1987-2006). Es combina l'anàlisi demogràfica amb l'anàlisi de regressió i s'introdueixen diverses variables sociodemogràfiques com a controladors de la relació abans esmentada.Durante las últimas cinco décadas, España ha experimentado una rápida transición hacia altos niveles de desarrollo y bienestar. La contribución específica del capital humano a este proceso así como su interacción con el bienestar biológico, es un aspecto aún poco investigado dentro de esa transición. En este sentido, se desconoce hasta qué punto el crecimiento económico español habría repercutido de igual forma, en términos de salud, sin una mejora en paralelo de los niveles de formación, particularmente entre las madres. Se desconoce también el papel específico de la formación del capital humano, en la configuración de las diferencias de salud entre las regiones españolas y las clases sociales. En este trabajo se explora la relación entre el capital humano y el bienestar biológico de la población a lo largo del siglo XX en España. El capital humano se deduce del nivel educativo mientras que para el bienestar biológico se utiliza la estatura adulta de las generaciones. Se plantean dos niveles de análisis: intrageneracional e intergeneracional para las cohortes nacidas entre 1910 y 1976 a partir de microdatos de la Encuesta Nacional de Salud (ENSE; ediciones 1987-2006). Se combina el análisis demográfico con el análisis de regresión y se introducen diversas variables sociodemográficas como controladores de la relación mencionada

Side-entrainment in a jet embedded in a sidewind

Numerical simulations of HH jets never show side-entrainment of environmental material into the jet beam. This is because the bow shock associated with the jet head pushes the surrounding environment into a dense shell, which is never in direct contact with the sides of the jet beam. We present 3D simulations in which a side-streaming motion (representing the motion of the outflow source through the surrounding medium) pushes the post-bow shock shell into direct contact with the jet beam. This is a possible mechanism for modelling well collimated "molecular jets" as an atomic/ionic flow which entrains molecules initially present only in the surrounding environment.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in Ap

A model of Mira's cometary head/tail entering the Local Bubble

We model the cometary structure around Mira as the interaction of an AGB wind from Mira A, and a streaming environment. Our simulations introduce the following new element: we assume that after 200 kyr of evolution in a dense environment Mira entered the Local Bubble (low density coronal gas). As Mira enters the bubble, the head of the comet expands quite rapidly, while the tail remains well collimated for a 100 kyr timescale. The result is a broad-head/narrow-tail structure that resembles the observed morphology of Mira's comet. The simulations were carried out with our new adaptive grid code WALICXE, which is described in detail.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures (4 in color). Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Anhedonia as a potential risk factor of alzheimer’s disease in a community-dwelling elderly sample: Results from the zarademp project

(1) Introduction: Dementia is a major public health problem, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most frequent subtype. Clarifying the potential risk factors is necessary in order to improve dementia-prevention strategies and quality of life. Here, our purpose was to investigate the role of the absence of hedonic tone; anhedonia, understood as the reduction on previous enjoyable daily activities, which occasionally is underdetected and underdiagnosed; and the risk of developing AD in a cognitively unimpaired and non-depressed population sample. (2) Method: We used data from the Zaragoza Dementia and Depression (ZARADEMP) project, a longitudinal epidemiological study on dementia and depression. After excluding subjects with dementia, a sample of 2830 dwellers aged =65 years was followed for 4.5 years. The geriatric mental state examination was used to identify cases of anhedonia. AD was diagnosed by a panel of research psychiatrists according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) criteria. A multivariate survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression model were performed, and the analysis was controlled by an analysis for the presence of clinically significant depression. (3) Results: We found a significant association between anhedonia cases and AD risk in the univariate analysis (hazard ratio (HR): 2.37; 95% CI: 1.04–5.40). This association persisted more strongly in the fully adjusted model. (4) Conclusions: Identifying cognitively intact individuals with anhedonia is a priority to implement preventive strategies that could delay the progression of cognitive and functional impairment in subjects at risk of AD

Alpha band disruption in the AD-continuum starts in the subjective cognitive decline stage: a MEG study

The consideration of Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) as a preclinical stage of AD remains still a matter of debate. Alpha band alterations represent one of the most significant changes in the electrophysiological profile of AD. In particular, AD patients exhibit reduced alpha relative power and frequency. We used alpha band activity measured with MEG to study whether SCD and MCI elders present these electrophysiological changes characteristic of AD, and to determine the evolution of the observed alterations across AD spectrum. The total sample consisted of 131 participants: 39 elders without SCD, 41 elders with SCD and 51 MCI patients. All of them underwent MEG and MRI scans and neuropsychological assessment. SCD and MCI patients exhibited a similar reduction in alpha band activity compared with the no SCD group. However, only MCI patients showed a slowing in their alpha peak frequency compared with both SCD and no SCD. These changes in alpha band were related to worse cognition. Our results suggest that AD-related alterations may start in the SCD stage, with a reduction in alpha relative power. It is later, in the MCI stage, where the slowing of the spectral profile takes place, giving rise to objective deficits in cognitive functioning.This study was supported by two projects from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, PSI2009-14415-C03-01 and PSI2012-38375-C03-01, a predoctoral fellowship from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to DLS (PSI2012-38375-C03-01), and three predoctoral fellowships from the Ministry of Education to RB,NS,ICRR (FPU13/06009, FPU14/07164, FPU13/02064)

How to measure student's performance in PBL?

[EN] In this paper, we present an analysis of metrics for teamwork efficiency in University degrees, by considering Project Based Learning as a teaching methodology. We defined indicators to evaluate the ability to prioritize tasks, the group communication and the produced value. Such parameters were designed to provide objective information about teamwork efficiency. To test the effectiveness of the proposed indicators, an experiment based on a classic team-building game was performed in the context of the Interactive Technologies Degree at Universitat Politècnica de València. Students were divided into two groups (one from the first course and another the fourth course) and were asked to solve a problem in a limited amount of time. Our hypothesis was that the group corresponding to the fourth course would achieve higher teamwork efficiency because of their experience with the Project Based Learning methodology. After measuring the proposed indicators and other state-of-the-art parameters, we assessed the evolution and improvement of teamwork efficiency by comparing the results of both sets of metrics. Finally, we concluded that the presented metrics can be useful for teamwork efficiency evaluation, but also for students to manage their work.This work has been partially financed by UPV-Innovation Project PIME-I 1776 (2022-2024).Pérez Pascual, MA.; Alberola Oltra, JM.; Marín-Roig Ramón, J.; Toledo Alarcón, JF.; Palacio Samitier, D.; Giménez López, JL.; Heras, S.... (2023). How to measure student's performance in PBL?. IATED. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2023.08461

All-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum measured by the HAWC experiment from 10 to 500 TeV

We report on the measurement of the all-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum with the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory in the energy range 10 to 500 TeV. HAWC is a ground based air-shower array deployed on the slopes of Volcan Sierra Negra in the state of Puebla, Mexico, and is sensitive to gamma rays and cosmic rays at TeV energies. The data used in this work were taken from 234 days between June 2016 to February 2017. The primary cosmic-ray energy is determined with a maximum likelihood approach using the particle density as a function of distance to the shower core. Introducing quality cuts to isolate events with shower cores landing on the array, the reconstructed energy distribution is unfolded iteratively. The measured all-particle spectrum is consistent with a broken power law with an index of $-2.49\pm0.01$ prior to a break at $(45.7\pm0.1$) TeV, followed by an index of $-2.71\pm0.01$. The spectrum also respresents a single measurement that spans the energy range between direct detection and ground based experiments. As a verification of the detector response, the energy scale and angular resolution are validated by observation of the cosmic ray Moon shadow's dependence on energy.Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables, submission to Physical Review

Unveiling the origin of X-ray flares in Gamma-Ray Bursts

We present an updated catalog of 113 X-ray flares detected by Swift in the ~33% of the X-ray afterglows of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB). 43 flares have a measured redshift. For the first time the analysis is performed in 4 different X-ray energy bands, allowing us to constrain the evolution of the flare temporal properties with energy. We find that flares are narrower at higher energies: their width follows a power-law relation w~E^{-0.5} reminiscent of the prompt emission. Flares are asymmetric structures, with a decay time which is twice the rise time on average. Both time scales linearly evolve with time, giving rise to a constant rise-to-decay ratio: this implies that both time scales are stretched by the same factor. As a consequence, the flare width linearly evolves with time to larger values: this is a key point that clearly distinguishes the flare from the GRB prompt emission. The flare 0.3-10 keV peak luminosity decreases with time, following a power-law behaviour with large scatter: L_{pk}~ t_{pk}^{-2.7}. When multiple flares are present, a global softening trend is established: each flare is on average softer than the previous one. The 0.3-10 keV isotropic energy distribution is a log-normal peaked at 10^{51} erg, with a possible excess at low energies. The flare average spectral energy distribution (SED) is found to be a power-law with spectral energy index beta~1.1. These results confirmed that the flares are tightly linked to the prompt emission. However, after considering various models we conclude that no model is currently able to account for the entire set of observations.Comment: MNRAS submitte

Observation of Anisotropy of TeV Cosmic Rays with Two Years of HAWC

After two years of operation, the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) Observatory has analyzed the TeV cosmic-ray sky over an energy range between $2.0$ and $72.8$ TeV. The HAWC detector is a ground-based air-shower array located at high altitude in the state of Puebla, Mexico. Using 300 light-tight water tanks, it collects the Cherenkov light from the particles of extensive air showers from primary gamma rays and cosmic rays. This detection method allows for uninterrupted observation of the entire overhead sky (2~sr instantaneous, 8.5~sr integrated) in the energy range from a few TeV to hundreds of TeV. Like other detectors in the northern and southern hemisphere, HAWC observes an energy-dependent anisotropy in the arrival direction distribution of cosmic rays. The observed cosmic-ray anisotropy is dominated by a dipole moment with phase $\alpha\approx40^{\circ}$ and amplitude that slowly rises in relative intensity from $8\times10^{-4}$ at 2 TeV to $14\times10^{-4}$ around 30.3 TeV, above which the dipole decreases in strength. A significant large-scale ($>60^{\circ}$ in angular extent) signal is also observed in the quadrupole and octupole moments, and significant small-scale features are also present, with locations and shapes consistent with previous observations. Compared to previous measurements in this energy range, the HAWC cosmic-ray sky maps improve on the energy resolution and fit precision of the anisotropy. These data can be used in an effort to better constrain local cosmic-ray accelerators and the intervening magnetic fields.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, 2 tables, submission to Ap